Garbage truck catches fire at Beach RV park

February 9, 2013

A Veolia Environmental Services garbage truck caught fire at Red Coconut RV Park Thursday morning and ignited a RV vehicle next to it in the process. No one from the two vehicles was harmed.

The Fort Myers Beach Fire District responded to the fire and the investigation is ongoing. The preliminary report say a fuel line leak in the fire truck started the fire. The fire moved to the engine, which then ignite the RV vehicle and burned it to its core. The inhabitants were not home at the time of the incident.

One patient, a neighbor, was treated and released by Lee County EMS. He reportedly had a little bit of smoke inhalation.

"At approximately 8:30 a.m., we had a report of a fire. Battalion 31 was the first one on scene, followed by Engine 31 and then all of our additional crews," said Capt. Ron Martin. "We found a garbage truck on fire with the motor home burning. The reports say a fuel line ruptured, which caused an explosion."

The garbage truck, which was on its morning round and near full capacity, still was actively burning as of 11:30 a.m.

"We were having issues getting into the deep-seated fire in the contents area of the truck," said Martin.

Though Station #31 is right next door to the RV park, the rescue crew there was on another call.

"We were still able to make a great stop," said Martin. "It could have been a lot worse because the close proximity of the units here. We could have had two or three more units burning. Our guys made an aggressive attack and a great stop."